Glastonbury festival? Life’s too short

Nick Cave at Glastonbury 2013 (BBC screen shot). There was something I liked after all.

I thought I might spend the weekend slagging off Glastonbury. But then I remembered I had a life.


Many of my Twitter friends have been complaining about all the Glasto tweets. A few have been commenting on the coverage. And one of my real-world  friends has been doing ‘Glasto on the sofa’. It involves wellies, cider and lots of Facebook updates about mud and pissing in next door’s garden.

I don’t really get the fuss. My approach to live music was always: the smaller the better. Small clubs where you can get up close, feel the music, look the performers in the eye. That’s exciting. That’s rock’n’roll.  Anything else feels like hard work.

The largest festival I’ve ever been to is the Cambridge Folk Festival (enjoyed Nick Cave, hit the cider tent when James Taylor came on), which is basically in a municipal park. It was a great atmosphere – small, friendly – until it started getting a bit corporate. Since then I’ve just gone to very small, local events. I admit there’s something nice about sitting out of doors listening to music. Especially if there’s cider involved as well. But I can do without crowds and mud. Particularly crowds.

So, I might dip in and out of the Glastonbury TV coverage, on the off chance there’ll be something I might like. Or something that makes me laugh.

Over the last few years, the bit of the Glastonbury coverage I’ve enjoyed the most was the Pet Shop Boys in 2010. The set was brilliant, but the interview afterwards was priceless.

BBC DJ guy: burbles on about ley lines and other hippie stuff and urges Neil to admit that the Glastonbury vibe has got to him.

Neil Tennant: ‘Well, the weather has been very nice.’